Today is a sad day for the staff and volunteers of the Galt ~ today is the day we say good-bye to our most recent Katimavik volunteer as she heads off to Smith Falls, ON to do her next Katimavik placement.

We signed up with Katimavik last summer. This meant we had a one year commitment where we would take a volunteer or two for Sept-November full time, and then when that group left to go to Smith Falls, a group from Surrey BC would arrive and we would have a ft volunteer (or two) for Nov-January. Finally when this group leaves, a new group comes for the month of February and works as a group ft for 3 weeks on a project to better our community. This cycle then repeats starting in March.

Katimavik takes youth who are just finished high school and have maybe done a year or two of university. It gives them a chance to explore three very different communities across Canada and volunteer full time to gain work experience, but also learn about themselves and set and work on personal and professional goals.

I don't know if this program existed when I was in high school, but if it did, I wish I had known about it because it seems like an amazing way to grow and learn and have very unique experiences. One of the neat things is each group, of about 10-12 youth, is made up of youth from across the country, and some are French speaking, some English and some bilingual. Spending 6 months together they get to know each other very well and I assume grow life-long relationships.

So today we say good-bye to Monica, as we have to Ben, Sarah, Raphael and Nathaniel (all from ON) and Guillaume (from QC). Monica has done so many odd jobs for us ranging from data entry to public family programs to currently helping build mounts for artifacts for our upcoming exhibit. She has been a wonderful addition to the Galt family and we will miss her cheerful nature! At the same time, we are excited for Smith Falls to get to grow as a community because of this group, and we look forward to our next Katimavik volunteer (or two) in March!

THANK YOU Monica! And all of our past Katimavik volunteers!